Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 92 No. 2, 2022.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.53745/bs.92.2.4
Sunday Capitalism as an Ideological Model of Work on Sunday in Croatia. Research Notes from the Project CRO Laudato si’
Ivana Brstilo Lovrić
orcid.org/0000-0003-0969-7409
; Catholic University of Croatia, Croatia, Zagreb
Damir Mravunac
orcid.org/0000-0002-7763-3442
; Centre for Promotion of the Social Teaching of the Church of the Croatian Bishop's Conference, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The chronology of work on Sunday in the sector of retail shops in the last few decades in Croatia as well as the arguments of proponents of such work indicate that an attempt to establish an ideal type of narrative called Sunday capitalism is at hand. The authors of this article interpret Sunday capitalism as an ideological form that establishes partial interests of some social groups as only ones that are real and exclusive, as well as a naturalistic model of economic development, while free Sunday is related to economic regression, letting go of workers, and, finally, to general social crisis. Bearing in mind that understanding, the authors relate it to data from the scientific project CRO Laudato Si’ with the purpose of researching profiles of participants (N=1324)
who support or oppose work on Sunday in Croatia in relation to their attitudes and practices in terms of this issue. Analyses show that proponents of work on Sunday go shopping more often on Sundays, while justifying their behaviour with necessity and preferring a more liberal model of work on Sundays that they mostly understand in the context of free market. The opponents of work on Sunday tend to emphasise the common good and the model of regulation or limiting work on Sunday. Although there is a trend of deregulating working hours of retail stores in Croatia in the last few years, by using the metaphor of Sunday capitalism, the authors of this article conclude that the whole Croatian tradition and culture cannot be reduced to a one-sided version of capitalism in which a free Sunday is addressed as an economic risk and expense, as opposed to being a social value and an achievement of civilisation that needs to be preserved.
Keywords
work on Sunday; retail shops; Sunday capitalism; Croatian society; CRO Laudato si’
Hrčak ID:
289221
URI
Publication date:
27.12.2022.
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